1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a blood cell counting apparatus and a blood cell counting method for counting blood cells contained in a whole blood sample.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional blood cell counting apparatuses are known wherein an aspirating tube is passed through a cap that seals a sample container which contains a whole blood sample to aspirate the whole blood sample from the sample container, and the blood cells contained in the aspirated whole blood sample are then counted. The sample container must be stirred to equalize the concentration of the whole blood sample in the sample container before the whole blood sample is aspirated since the blood cell components contained in the whole blood sample will settle when allowed to stand. In this case, the agitation of the sample container may be performed manually by the user, or mechanically by the cell counting apparatus via a mechanism to perform agitation disposed within the cell counting apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,818,182 discloses an apparatus provided with a mechanism for stirring a sample container containing a whole blood sample. This apparatus has a shaft disposed horizontally, a rotating head capable of rotation in the circumferential direction of the shafts, and a pick-up device disposed at the tip of the rotating head for grasping both sides of a sample container. The apparatus grasps the midsection of the upright sample container via the pick-up device, rotates the rotating head 360 degrees in the circumferential direction relative to the shaft, to complete one rotation of the sample container pivoting on the grasped section, hence stirring the whole blood within the sample container.
When stirring the whole blood sample by the aforesaid method, however, part of the whole blood sample remains inside the cap of the sample container. When the cap is pierced by the aspirating tube while in this condition, the whole blood adhered inside the cap may be emitted to the outside.